In the Blink of an Eye
by Sazzy.x.x
Summary: Based around Janet's drama at the end of S2E8 with her family, and how Rachel's friendship helps her through it.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: This is set after s2e8, just focussing on Janet's drama. For the sake of this fic just pretend Rachel's drama with Dom and her mum didn't happen! Hope you enjoy, review and I'll love you forever! :)

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Scott and Bailey, or the dialogue I've used from the script. Also, there is a bit of swearing so if you're easily offended don't read it, like!

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**Chapter 1**

As Janet unlocked her front door she was glad to be home, more so than usual. It had been a long day. To most people a promotion is a cause for celebration but all Janet felt was guilt. She'd never meant to poach Andy's job and she knew an apology was more than necessary, but tonight she was looking forward to an evening in with the girls, watching some mindless television and not having to think about work for a few hours.

None of the usual mayhem greeted her as she stepped over the threshold, the television was silent and Lady Gaga wasn't providing backing music. The house was eerily quiet and Janet immediately began to wonder what was going on. As she walked through the tidy hallway she could see Adrian's silhouette sitting at the kitchen table, unmoving.

"Hello. What's up? Where are the girls?" Janet asked in a sharper tone than she had planned, tiredness getting the better of her.

"Dorothy's taken them to Pizza Express for their tea… in a taxi." He answered, adding unnecessary detail which still left Janet none the wiser as to what was going on, although it had squashed her immediate fear that something had happened to one of her family. She dealt with death at work on a daily basis and for every child they saw, she thanked her lucky stars it wasn't one of the girls.

Avoiding any pleasantries, she decided to try a different track "Are you moving back in?" She willed him to answer more quickly, her patience having already evaporated at about midday. Her husband wasn't usually a man of many words but it was apparent that something was wrong. He hadn't yet made eye contact, his eyes fixed on a point on the kitchen wall close to a painting Taisie had done in nursery school.

"I was. Then I had a phone call."

"What phone call?" Janet responded immediately, her exasperation beginning to show, which in all honesty didn't bode well if he were to move back in. But before she had a chance to analyse this he spoke again.

"From Andy." He finally turned round to look at Janet and she could see the anger in his eyes. The penny dropped. Andy. Fuck.

Her first emotion had been shock; it hadn't even crossed her mind that Andy would do that. She didn't really hear the rest of Adrian's tirade even though it was no doubt the most he'd said to her in months.

He got up from the kitchen chair, anger now visible in all of his actions. "You bitch," he spat, his usual reserved demeanour gone as he slammed his bag down on the kitchen table.

Janet didn't even try to defend herself, knew there wasn't any point. She couldn't even play the 'drunken mistake' card because there had been other times too, like her first day back at work. She didn't know how much Andy had said but even so, now wasn't the time for more lies. They'd already got her into enough trouble.

He'd chucked her out. Well, as good as.

xxx

Janet was still reeling as she drove across Manchester. Her heart was still thumping in her chest and her hands were still shaking, half anger towards Andy for his spiteful behaviour and half fear over what would happen next. Obviously she was worried about the girls. There was no doubt Aide would tell them, he'd have to in order to explain his presence and her absence. The uncertainty lay over how much he'd tell them, whether in his anger he'd include the sordid details or for both her and the girls' sakes edit his account. She hoped to god he did otherwise she didn't think Taisie and Elise would ever be able to respect her again.

When Janet got into her car she hadn't thought about her destination, she just needed to escape. Her sensible side – although let's be honest, Janet _is _mostly sensible – knew better than to allow herself to think about what just happened else she'd cry, which would definitely hinder her escape.

Janet could have gone to her mother who no doubt would've offered her a shoulder to cry on. She could've gone to her oldest friend Gill who no doubt would've offered her a glass of red wine or three. But instead she was driving to her best friend who no doubt would offer both of these things.

As she pulled noisily into Rachel's gravel driveway, it occurred to Janet that Rachel might be out, or be having a romantic evening in with Sean. But she needn't have worried as Rachel had the front door open before Janet had even climbed the steps at the front of the property.

"Gravel," she said by way of explanation, with a smile. "Best burglar alarm on the market." Then the smile faded as it occurred to her that she wasn't expecting Janet and had seen her an hour earlier at work, looking far too glum for someone who'd just been promoted.

xxx

Janet had only needed one minute to explain what had happened, but half an hour and a bottle of red later (demolished mostly by Rachel) it was still the main topic of discussion.

"He's such a dickhead, Jan. First he tries to get you kicked off MIT and when that doesn't work he goes running to Aide," Rachel said as she sat forward on the sofa in outrage and gestured at the opposite wall.

The conversation reached a lull as both ladies ran out of insults for the lanky sergeant. The atmosphere changed with Janet becoming tangibly more serious as she let out an enormous sigh.

"Thanks Rachel, for all of this. And for taking my side."

"Don't be silly, that's what I'm here for. It's my turn to look after you, after everything you did for me last year."

"Can I … stay?" Janet was hesitant about asking despite the fact Rachel had stayed with her after the whole Nick Savage fiasco. As Rachel herself had pointed out, Janet was usually the one doing the looking after and that's what she was accustomed to.

"'Course, stay as long as you want. You've already got the spare key," she pointed out with a chuckle. Rachel was always losing things; her contribution to the fridge at work demonstrated her level of disorganisation. A few months previously, after locking herself out for the second time in three days Rachel had conceded that leaving spare keys with the most organised person she knew was in fact a good idea, and Janet had the so-called honour.

"Thanks mate," Janet visibly relaxed and phoned the girls again, trying to get an answer.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: Even if you can't bear to read Andy's name, bear with me…the next chapter will have lots of Rachel and Janet...I promise. This is set later on the same day :) Also sorry it's a bit short, but please review ;)

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**Chapter 2**

"I mean, does he not think he's already made enough of a fucking prat of himself. Fucking selfish idiot. God knows what I ever saw in him, Rach." Janet vented, whilst pacing up and down Rachel's kitchen, on the verge of tears again. "I'm gonna go and see him, give him a piece of my mind." She suddenly said decisively, heading towards the door. Seeing Rachel begin to open her mouth and protest, she quickly continued. "I know it won't make anything better but at least when I bump into him at work in a couple of months I won't have anything left to yell."

Rachel half-heartedly tried to stop her, but was struck by the irony. Their friendship never worked this way; it was always Rachel doing the reckless things. "Alright, just don't end up in his bed, Jan." That was Rachel's advice, yelled across the front drive and reaching Janet moments before her car door slammed shut.

"As if I would," muttered Janet as she swung her car out of the drive. That's probably what you're thinking too, but you'd be surprised what otherwise sensible women do in these sorts of situations. Just ask Rachel.

xxx

All too soon she pulled up outside his house, hating how familiar it felt. As she killed the engine and sat in undisturbed darkness she suddenly felt the guilt she should have experienced all those months previously when this had still felt new and exciting.

As usual, Andy answered the door quickly. She hadn't even stepped through the door before her anger escaped. "You just couldn't resist, could you?" She was past caring if the entire street heard. "Just 'cos we didn't work out you had to go and ruin what was left of my life. Aide knowing is one thing but when he throws _me_ out…he'll tell the girls, I know he will, he'll turn them against me and I'll lose them. I can't lose them." She shrieked at him but before she'd even stopped to draw breath the tears began to escape.

"Janet, I'm so sorry, I was just jealous. First I lose you and then you get my job as well, it was never meant to end like this. I'm sorry for screwing everything up, I really am… Janet, you're amazing and you don't deserve an idiot like me messing you around." Janet looked up to see his eyes glittering, matching hers. "Come here" he whispered hesitantly and Janet did, surprising herself almost as much as him.

As they held each other each wallowing in their own faults and regrets, Rachel's parting words completely slipped her mind. That might be why she accepted when he offered her a glass of wine. Her favourite, no doubt bought especially for an occasion which never arrived. It might also be why she didn't object when he rested his arm around her shoulder and pulled her towards him. They stayed like this in companionable silence, the television which Andy hadn't stopped to turn off continued droning on in the background yet neither of them were paying enough attention to identify the programme.

It felt comfortable and familiar and for those minutes, hours even, she could forget what the world knew about her. She could forget the world's judgements.

When he laid a kiss on the top of her head, stroking her hair she'd looked up at him, questioning but with softness in her eyes. When he kissed her it felt just as good as always. She knew she should pull away, that this wasn't what she truly wanted but right now it was better than facing up to reality.

And that was how it happened. Exactly what she shouldn't have done, what she wasn't planning on doing, what she had scoffed at when Rachel warned her against it.

Her phone lay somewhere near the front door, the display telling the interior of her handbag she had thirteen missed calls from Taisie. She'd see them when she crept out at three am, wondering, not for the first time, just what she'd done now.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews, this is for anyone still reading this. Sorry the update's taken so long :) Please R&R if you have time!

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"Morning," Rachel greeted Janet as she wandered into the kitchen, dressed in one of her usual shirt and skirt combinations, looking shorter than normal without her semi-permanent heels.

"You got back late last night." That was Rachel, subtle as a sledgehammer as she handed her friend a steaming mug of coffee. Janet almost chuckled; she didn't think the word subtle was in Rachel's vocabulary. Didn't think even the most generous person could use that adjective to describe Rachel.

"Yeah," Janet said defensively, she'd known the interrogation was inevitable; Rachel wasn't called Sherlock for nothing. "Who made you my mother?" she snapped back slightly sharper than intended but didn't bother to rectify it. The message was clear and Rachel knew better than to push it.

"So what's the interview strategy for Freddie Small today?" Rachel moved onto safer ground, Janet responded and they were back to normal. Just two cops doing their jobs.

xxx

"Janet," Gill called her into her office before she'd even got a chance to take her coat off. She and Rachel had travelled to work separately due to irreconcilable differences in car radio station and despite Rachel's haphazard driving, Janet had still reached the office first.

"Right cock, you're in charge of this one. Don't let the power go to your head." Gill said, and after a short pause glanced up from her desk to find out why Janet hadn't responded. From the blank look on the blonde lady's face she could immediately tell something was wrong and showed a rare bit of concern as she lowered her voice; "Are you OK?"

_Janet thought back to the telephone conversation – if you could call it that – she'd had with Taisie earlier. She had tried her best to placate her daughter but it was clear she had already worked herself up into a state. Janet had known the conversation was coming but the words 'I hate you' were burned into her mind and had once again made her regret her actions._

_Elise had been less vocal with her judgements but in a way her quietness had been worse. Janet had heard her muffled attempts to stop Taisie's shouting but once her older daughter had gained control of the phone the conversation hadn't improved. Janet had tried to arrange to see her daughters; she knew she needed to talk to them in person and would rather avoid an encounter with Adrian as well. Elise made their excuses; Dad was taking them out for the day. In truth that sentence had hurt her more than her younger daughter's declaration of hate; it was nothing she hadn't said before but Adrian's day trip triggered a whole mountain of guilt. There was no doubt her husband was - and always had been - the more attentive parent._

Gill let out a delicate cough in an attempt to get Janet's attention, but resisted making a sarcastic comment before she'd got a response to her question.

"Yeah I'm fine, just didn't sleep very well last night." She didn't want Gill to know, definitely not yet, ideally not ever. God knows how she'd word that. Janet had spent hours sympathising with Gill about Dave and his infidelity. She'd condemned it wholeheartedly – of course she had – but what she'd done was really no better. Rachel had made her mistakes too, wasn't as perfect as Gill and that had made it easier to tell her last night.

Gill wasn't convinced by her denial but she knew Janet was a private person and would tell her eventually. Now wasn't really the time for a heart-to-heart anyway as she could sense, rather than hear, that Kevin had arrived and was already winding Rachel up.

xxx

It was almost the end of a demanding day in Manchester's Major Incident Team. There was an air of restlessness around the room; Kevin was making blu-tack models of their main suspect's car and even Janet had stopped working to check her phone. Three missed calls and two text messages, which was pretty good going if any of them had been from her daughters. Instead they were all from Andy and Janet let out a disgruntled sigh so loud that it made Rachel stop her frantic typing and look at her friend in concern.

Rachel had heard half of Janet's phone call with the girls earlier, but hadn't mentioned it. After Janet's touchiness about where she'd been the night before, her lesser used diplomacy had told her it wouldn't be wise. Plus, she knew nothing she could say would actually help.

She hadn't planned to interfere but before she could talk herself out of it the brunette detective leapt up and fled the room, hoping for once that Janet wouldn't follow. Scrolling down the contact list on her phone she quickly reached Elise's name, but as she listened to the dull calling tone Rachel was beginning to think she wasn't going to pick up.

"Hello?" Elise sounded uncertain, probably wondering why Rachel was phoning her.

"Hey kid, it's Rachel. Do you and Taisie want to come round for tea tomorrow? I know your Mum would like to see you. Indian or Chinese? Your choice." Rachel's telephone manner was short and to the point even during personal calls. She hadn't really left much manoeuvring space to say no, but that was deliberate.

"Can't we have pizza? It has to be the one with the cheesy crust." She answered back and Rachel smiled. Mission accomplished.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**: I'm not really happy with this, but I've spent days rewording sentences and I'm sick of it now! :p This is dedicated to Sophie, Jill, Amy, Manda, Gabby and Megan for their lovely reviews :)

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"You do realise having you to stay has made my fridge look a whole lot more unhealthy? It's full of wine and pizza; you're a bad influence, Janet Scott," Rachel complained in a good natured manner.

In response she received only a half smile and Rachel inwardly sighed and gave up, leaving Janet to her thoughts as she sat on a stool in Rachel's kitchen, nursing a small glass of wine. Janet had been unusually serious all afternoon and her best friend could tell she was slightly apprehensive about how the evening would turn out.

Before long the doorbell interrupted Janet's contemplation and she quickly slipped off the stool, abandoning her drink on the worktop and made towards the hallway to greet her daughters.

Elise was her normal bubbly self but Taisie seemed to be conducting the conversation with as few words as possible. She wasn't being as rude as to completely not answer but you wouldn't exactly describe her as chatty.

"How did your presentation go in English class?" Janet had only known about this because Aide had been complaining that he'd had to watch the many practice runs alone, but she _had_ remembered. She had remembered because she cared.

"Alright. Yeah, good thanks," Taisie responded with more words than strictly necessary but still wasn't particularly informative.

"What mark did you get?" Elise prompted; her maturity showing as she made an effort to thaw the atmosphere.

"Seventy percent."

"Taisie, kid, do you want to come and help me with the pizzas?" Rachel didn't really have any natural cooking skill, but even she was capable of following the instructions on a pizza packet. This was clearly a ruse to talk to Janet's youngest daughter, but Rachel was past caring if she was being obvious.

Rachel knew the girls looked up to her, god knows why but Janet was always saying she was on a par with Lady Gaga. Having heard Janet cry herself to sleep the last couple of nights Rachel just wished she could help. She couldn't really be of any help with Adrian, wasn't even sure if Janet knew what she wanted where her husband was concerned, but she could at least help to get her relationship with the girls back on track.

"Look your mum isn't proud of what she did, but just because she and your dad have got their differences doesn't mean she loves you any less y'know." Rachel grimaced into the oven as she reached in for the hot pizza tray; she didn't do emotional conversations. The detective didn't usually engage her brain before she opened her mouth and for this reason, her emotional chats usually ended with too much honesty.

If she had been Taisie, she would have probably asked how many times that sentence had been rehearsed in her head. But luckily she didn't have as much of an attitude problem as Rachel and so smiled in return, accepting Rachel's point and murmuring her agreement.

xxx

Several hours later they were all sitting around the living room, aimlessly chatting and laughing at the awful singers auditioning for the talent show on the television. Janet sighed; as much as she was enjoying herself she knew it was getting late.

"I think it's probably time you girls were home," Janet said, knowing it was past their normal curfew and expecting an earful from Adrian about upsetting their routine and undermining him.

"Can't we stay?" Elise asked very quickly, just before Taisie, who was about to say the same thing.

"No, Rachel's not running a hotel! Anyway, you've got school in the morning." Janet was firm, but secretly delighted that her daughters wanted to stay and that their relationship was back to normal. "Come on, I'll drop you off." She had deliberately held back on the wine so that she was able to drive, not that she had needed alcohol to drown her sorrows tonight; Janet had a genuine smile on her face for the first time in days.

As Janet pulled up outside their – her – home she was tempted to stay in the car and avoid acknowledging Adrian, simply because she didn't want to give him the chance to ruin her good mood. This cheerfulness, however, gave her the confidence to face him. Just a friendly 'hello' was all she needed to manage.

"Hello, sorry we're a bit late. How are you?" Immediately Janet regretted apologising for spending time with her daughters, but didn't really mind if it broke the ice.

"I just had a phone call from Gill," he responded with this information, which was entirely unrelated to her comments.

Janet didn't like the way this conversation was going; it seemed to mirror far too much the words her husband had said to her the day he chucked her out. In all honesty, she didn't understand why Gill's phone call was so significant; she was pretty sure she had no other secrets which her boss could have revealed.

"Trying to keep her from knowing about your dirty little secret were you?" Adrian spat at her, his bitterness indicating he had clearly taken great delight in updating Gill on where Janet was currently staying and why.

Janet sighed. "No, I just haven't told her yet because she's got enough on her plate with Sammy." That was the truth; Gill had phoned her last week panicking about her son's intentions to become a policeman and Janet didn't want her worrying about anything else.

As the girls said goodbye, Janet quickly made for her car. If Adrian had said that in front of the girls, she didn't want to hang around to find out what he had to say in private.

Janet drove back to Rachel's slightly too fast through the rain, her cheerfulness gone as she wondered how she was going to explain herself to Gill.


	5. Chapter 5

Gill sat at her desk, aimlessly scrolling through her emails and stewing. Janet was her closest friend and had been for nineteen years and she wasn't sure whether she was more bothered by Janet's actions or the fact she had found out about it via Adrian. She was also slightly miffed that even with her profession; she hadn't picked up on it.

Janet had decided not to address the issue with Gill yet; Gill had no idea that Adrian had told her about the phone call and work wasn't really the ideal location to discuss it anyway.

"Morning boss," Janet called, in her usual cheerful tone, from the doorway of Gill's office.

"Morning cock," came the response, somewhat lacking in enthusiasm as she emerged from her office, ready to conduct the morning briefing now that she was satisfied everyone was present.

As Gill told the team about the lab results they'd just received in relation to the shooting of a man called Adrian Woodlans, she was finding it difficult to meet Janet's eye. Janet was her usual inquisitive self; asking pertinent questions, picking up on inconsistencies and generally being the brilliant sergeant Gill knew she would be when she offered her the job. However, Gill was unusually quiet in response today; none of the comments resulted in their usual snappy conversations where everyone chipped in and Kevin only caught up with what was going on ten minutes later.

To Gill it felt as though the briefing dragged on and lasted far longer than normal. Finally, she brought it to conclusion and made sure each member of the team knew the strategy and had specific jobs to be getting on with.

"You alright boss?" Rachel asked as they all stood up from the table. Christ, if even Rachel had noticed, she clearly _was _being obvious.

But as the door swung open and she glanced over, this became the least of her problems.

xxx

"What did he want?" Janet asked, gesturing with a head movement to Gill's ex-husband as he made his way past the glass windows in Gill's office, towards the door, with his usual arrogant saunter. Gill swore at his retreating back before turning her attention to Janet.

"To spout some shit to me about Sammy and supporting him in his career choices." The brunette made an exasperated noise, before continuing; "He sacrificed his opinion way back when he was shagging all and sundry behind my back."

In her anger, she had forgotten last night's bombshell and visibly flinched when she remembered. In the grand scheme of things, Gill knew it shouldn't really be a big deal; thousands of people cheated on their spouses every day but Gill had always had Janet down as someone who played by the rules.

"Why are you staying with Rachel?" Gill knew as well as anyone that bitter exes rarely told the truth and thought she'd give her friend the chance to explain. Everyone knew the 'two sides to every story' cliché, but clichéd though it is, it's often true.

"Umm." Janet murmured with wide eyes, but quickly recovered from her surprise, shutting the door and sitting down to face her boss and friend, ready to summarise what had happened in as little detail as possible.

xxx

As Rachel approached her desk, having returned from interviewing a particularly uncooperative suspect, the first thing that she noticed was that Janet wasn't sitting in the seat opposite.

"Where's Scotty?" Rachel asked anyone who was listening.

"Godzilla's lair" Kevin answered with a smirk, before twisting round in his seat to look at Rachel, just in case there was any gossip going. As he did this, the young detective was greeted by the sight of a stern-looking Gill and he wished, not for the first time that his desk didn't face away from her office.

"Kevin." She said his name with thinly-veiled disappointment. "Not finished that paperwork yet?" The look on Gill's face told him this was most certainly a rhetorical question and for once he had the sense to stay quiet.

Gill turned her attention to Rachel and said in a distinctly warmer tone; "You and Janet are off to see the brother and I'll see if I can talk some sense into the wife."

The three of them descended the station stairs with such determination that Janet began to feel like they were shooting a scene in a bad cop show. They swept through the doors with a similar vigour, each absorbed in their own mental preparation for the informal interviews they were about to conduct, however the peace was quickly shattered.

"What the fuck?" Rachel exclaimed, having caught sight of Janet's car a split second before the others.

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**A/N**: *sings* Dun dun dun….Sorry about the evil cliff hanger there! Bet you can't guess what has happened ;) And thank you for all the lovely reviews last chapter, I love you all!


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